Route – 24,000 km, 240 days, 21 countries

To manage our planning, the route has been broken down into “bite-size” chunks.

Phase 1 – Western Europe – This takes us from London down to Dover and across to Calais. From there we head down to Germany and pickup the Danube trail, which takes us towards Budapest, where we’ll be looking forward to a massage and recovery session in the famous baths. (2000 km)

Phase 2 – Eastern Europe – From Budapest we follow the Danube south through Croatia, Serbia and Romania. We then duck down through Bulgaria and across to Istanbul. From Istanbul we follow the Black Sea coast across Turkey’s mountainous regions. We then cut into Georgia, go along the southern edge of the Caucuses and head across to Tbilisi, ending in Baku, Azerbaijan. (4000 km)

Phase 3 – Central Asia – We hop across the Caspian Sea to Aktau, Kazakhstan. We’re then faced with the sparsely populated and arid landscapes of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. From Tashkent we cross into Kyrgyzstan to go up into the mountains before heading back into Kazakhstan and over into China. (3500 km)

Phase 4 – East Asia – This takes us across China (for a long time), over to South Korea and up through Japan, finishing in Tokyo. (8000 km)

Phase 5 – North America – Our final leg is from San Francisco to Miami. We’ll be heading across the mountains from San Francisco and through some of the Parks before heading down through Texas and along the coast down to Miami. (6500 km)

Click here to view the interactive map in Google Map Engine for a detailed plan

*Our original route took us through Moldova, Ukraine and Russia into Kazakhstan. Given the ongoing situation in the region we’ve now taken the decision to detour to the south of the Black Sea. It has extended the route somewhat, and caused a few visa issues but on balance it should actually be a more interesting and varied ride.